Michael: “At the pocket park, they had something going on, on a Saturday. I went up there to help, and Michael Espinoza told me about it, that they had a summer job program going on, and would I be interested. I said yeah.”

Shaquille: “I got the job because I live in the neighborhood. Trying to help out the community.”

Just for the summer, for you guys?

Michael: “Yeah. They’re trying to work it out so we can stay longer.”

And what do you think of Teri?

Michael: “She’s laid back.”

Shaquille: “She’s nice.”

Michael: “She’s strict on us just enough. Tells us a lot about the plants. Most of us didn’t know anything about plants; we just know about the food. And she told us the different plants, and what they do.”

Is there a lot to learn? I don’t really do gardening…er, farming, myself.

Shaquille: “There’s a lot of work.”

AJ : “A lot weeding.”

Michael: “Leveling off the beds even. Watering.”

AJ : “Turning them over.”

Michael: “After we got past the hard stuff, all we really do is weed and plant and water. That’s all. The first couple weeks were hard. We had to turn the dirt over, then make all these beds. Then we had to plant them all, and they cut the tree down. That’s where all these wood chips came from. Instead of picking up all the wood chips, we decided to just make a path out of them.”

What do you guys think about the neighborhood in general? Do you like living here?